I’ll state right up front there is nothing much new in here to read, nothing fresh or innovative. So if you’re pressed for time by all means move along, no harm done.
It’s not too often I am compelled to make any kind of public declaration of satisfaction in business transactions. Honestly, I don’t go out of my way to look for nasty or negative customer service, but more often than not incompetence and/or mind boggling inefficiency (I’m looking at you DirecTV) put a real damper on what should be smooth customer service. But once in a while a business or vendor really steps up and goes out of their way to help; doesn’t always mean a freebie or a refund, more often than not it may simply be resolution to an irritating issue.
Having stated all that, I can readily say that my interactions with all vendors I have dealt with in the wet shave community have been pleasant . . . truly. We are a fairly small niche in a global shave market, so it’s obviously good for business to be on the plus end of the spectrum—but once in a while we read of somebody's, shall we say, unsatisfactory experience with a vendor. This isn’t one of those.
Those of us who went to the Big Shave S’West event and got a swag bag received a bunch of cool samples and goodies. One of those was a full tub of Col. Conk Rio Grande Lavender shave cream. Took me a couple weeks before I got around to using it but when I finally did my first experience was less than stellar. I had a heck of time getting it to build a lather, where as most any other soap or cream I have no problems with in general—but this one I really had to work at it.
So Mike—you’ll see him in here from time to time—messaged me and made some suggestions as to how to work with his vegan-formulated shave cream. Now, I have a few non-tallow shave soaps/croaps, and have little to no problem at all getting them to bend to my lathering will. But this one cream had be really scratching my head as to why it wasn’t working right. Was I whipping too much? Did I add enough water? Did I add too much water? Did I have enough product? Was it simply ‘different’ and I had to take some time to dial it in? No matter what I tried or how I approached it, it wouldn’t perform.
I tried Mike’s suggestions and on the second use I thought I had pretty well nailed it—it’s performance was markedly better than the first time. My hubris was soon exposed. On the third and fourth attempts not only did it not lather well, it was literally evaporating as it sat on my ugly mug.
Once again, Mike and I tried a couple things. Mike tested it at his office; worked fine for him, but I couldn’t get it to work. I took pictures, wrote step-by-step what I did. I wasn’t complaining, not at all, and Mike would tell you the same. I told him I really wanted to like the product, because I’ve read reviews from others who absolutely love Conk’s products. But I couldn’t get it to work.
Mike asked me about the water I was using, how much product . . . lots of pertinent questions to try and figure out what was going wrong for me. After the fifth try he asked me for my address so he could send me a new tub. My response was swift and unreservedly sincere:
• I told him it could very well be end-user deficiencies preventing success—any one who has worked in IT will understand the ubiquitous ID 10T error, or chair-to-keyboard interface issue.
• The tub came essentially free (sort of) in the swag bag. I hadn’t purchased the product via retail. I told Mike this was his bread and butter and I wasn’t going to take a little profit out of his pocket just because I may be a remedial latherer.
He laughed and replied, told me to give it another go if I wanted but he would do whatever was necessary to make it right. That was on a Thursday.
The following Monday he wrote me back stating he had heard from four others over that weekend who were having the same issue with their tubs . . . so it wasn’t just me. (Phew!)
He did, in fact, wind up sending me a new tub with a couple other goodies thrown in. I told him he’d gone way overboard, but I very much appreciated his efforts.
So, did the new tub work better? You bet it did. Apparently some of us simply got part of a bad batch. It happens. But the new tub lathers wonderfully, nice and slick—orders of magnitude better than the first tub.
Why this long post? I promise it wasn’t to toss some free marketing to Col. Conk. There are lots of great artisans out there churning out fantastic products . . and I’m sure they would also do what was necessary to keep their customer base, and hopefully build on it.
I am one solitary person in this community. I’m a relative novice in the wider scope of things—I’ve only DE shaved since the beginning of this year. While I’ve come a long way in that time I don’t have all the experience a lot of you guys do. Perhaps all the more reason I am duly impressed with Mike’s customer service.
My virtual hat goes off to Mike. He, like many others, isn’t a large corporation. He’s making a living the old school way, the way we Americans have since coming over from Britain. I didn’t write this because Mike sent me stuff, he doesn’t even know I wrote it. But I heartily applaud his efforts, and those like him, who are working hard and not just listening to their customers but actively participating in helping them come to resolutions.
Thank you again to Mike for his help, and thank you to all the vendors and artisans out there building their customer bases one happy customer at a time. AT&T/DirecTV might want to take notes.
It’s not too often I am compelled to make any kind of public declaration of satisfaction in business transactions. Honestly, I don’t go out of my way to look for nasty or negative customer service, but more often than not incompetence and/or mind boggling inefficiency (I’m looking at you DirecTV) put a real damper on what should be smooth customer service. But once in a while a business or vendor really steps up and goes out of their way to help; doesn’t always mean a freebie or a refund, more often than not it may simply be resolution to an irritating issue.
Having stated all that, I can readily say that my interactions with all vendors I have dealt with in the wet shave community have been pleasant . . . truly. We are a fairly small niche in a global shave market, so it’s obviously good for business to be on the plus end of the spectrum—but once in a while we read of somebody's, shall we say, unsatisfactory experience with a vendor. This isn’t one of those.
Those of us who went to the Big Shave S’West event and got a swag bag received a bunch of cool samples and goodies. One of those was a full tub of Col. Conk Rio Grande Lavender shave cream. Took me a couple weeks before I got around to using it but when I finally did my first experience was less than stellar. I had a heck of time getting it to build a lather, where as most any other soap or cream I have no problems with in general—but this one I really had to work at it.
So Mike—you’ll see him in here from time to time—messaged me and made some suggestions as to how to work with his vegan-formulated shave cream. Now, I have a few non-tallow shave soaps/croaps, and have little to no problem at all getting them to bend to my lathering will. But this one cream had be really scratching my head as to why it wasn’t working right. Was I whipping too much? Did I add enough water? Did I add too much water? Did I have enough product? Was it simply ‘different’ and I had to take some time to dial it in? No matter what I tried or how I approached it, it wouldn’t perform.
I tried Mike’s suggestions and on the second use I thought I had pretty well nailed it—it’s performance was markedly better than the first time. My hubris was soon exposed. On the third and fourth attempts not only did it not lather well, it was literally evaporating as it sat on my ugly mug.
Once again, Mike and I tried a couple things. Mike tested it at his office; worked fine for him, but I couldn’t get it to work. I took pictures, wrote step-by-step what I did. I wasn’t complaining, not at all, and Mike would tell you the same. I told him I really wanted to like the product, because I’ve read reviews from others who absolutely love Conk’s products. But I couldn’t get it to work.
Mike asked me about the water I was using, how much product . . . lots of pertinent questions to try and figure out what was going wrong for me. After the fifth try he asked me for my address so he could send me a new tub. My response was swift and unreservedly sincere:
• I told him it could very well be end-user deficiencies preventing success—any one who has worked in IT will understand the ubiquitous ID 10T error, or chair-to-keyboard interface issue.
• The tub came essentially free (sort of) in the swag bag. I hadn’t purchased the product via retail. I told Mike this was his bread and butter and I wasn’t going to take a little profit out of his pocket just because I may be a remedial latherer.
He laughed and replied, told me to give it another go if I wanted but he would do whatever was necessary to make it right. That was on a Thursday.
The following Monday he wrote me back stating he had heard from four others over that weekend who were having the same issue with their tubs . . . so it wasn’t just me. (Phew!)
He did, in fact, wind up sending me a new tub with a couple other goodies thrown in. I told him he’d gone way overboard, but I very much appreciated his efforts.
So, did the new tub work better? You bet it did. Apparently some of us simply got part of a bad batch. It happens. But the new tub lathers wonderfully, nice and slick—orders of magnitude better than the first tub.
Why this long post? I promise it wasn’t to toss some free marketing to Col. Conk. There are lots of great artisans out there churning out fantastic products . . and I’m sure they would also do what was necessary to keep their customer base, and hopefully build on it.
I am one solitary person in this community. I’m a relative novice in the wider scope of things—I’ve only DE shaved since the beginning of this year. While I’ve come a long way in that time I don’t have all the experience a lot of you guys do. Perhaps all the more reason I am duly impressed with Mike’s customer service.
My virtual hat goes off to Mike. He, like many others, isn’t a large corporation. He’s making a living the old school way, the way we Americans have since coming over from Britain. I didn’t write this because Mike sent me stuff, he doesn’t even know I wrote it. But I heartily applaud his efforts, and those like him, who are working hard and not just listening to their customers but actively participating in helping them come to resolutions.
Thank you again to Mike for his help, and thank you to all the vendors and artisans out there building their customer bases one happy customer at a time. AT&T/DirecTV might want to take notes.
